My feeling, though, is that Metr Philaret wrote that back in a better era.
If he were to be here in America today, I am not sure he would find that participation in the electoral process does
ANY good whatsoever.
I consider especially 'presidential elections' to be nothing but a planned distraction, just like movies or stupid TV shows.
The media plays up every election and makes the entire nation get involved in a useless struggle. Always the same puppets win, so there is NO contest at all !
Better to channel one's energies into planning ahead for a difficult future, a chastisement from Heaven, possibly,
and organizing one's life to be the most God-Pleasing possible.
Back in Metropolitan Philaret's time, the US stood for something : the "free world" versus Soviet repression and barbarity [though you notice
only one or two movies like "One Day in the LIfe of Ivan Denisovitch" ever made to the screen. So it could not have been AS HIGH on the agenda
to expose Stalin and concentration camps as one might wish. Only anti-Nazi movies were ever allowed to appear, and the public was given
the a nauseating diet of the same old fare, over and over, up to this day].
Today, most alert people realize that THIS country is not free, either. So it's not as praiseworthy to engage in politics as it would have been
during the few decades after World War II.
Instead, if one has extra energy to devote to politics, why not sign up for a committee which is promoting the return of legitimate Monarchs
to rule their former lands ? Some will say that is futile, but at least a little publicity for THIS cause won't hurt.